Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
The cleanliness of moving handrail surfaces, often found on electric escalators and walkways, is becoming an increasing concern for society. Such surfaces are in frequent contact with a large number of people's hands and are infrequently cleaned. Fifty years ago, in some countries, dedicated workers were hired to periodically clean handrail belts using house-cloth and disinfecting solution, but due to economic development and increasing labor expenses, it has become difficult to retain such labor.
Statistics show that fewer than 30% of Americans wash their hands after using the bathroom and, in the US alone, it is estimated that 50 million days of work are lost annually due to the common cold. Using soap is not a common practice when washing hands in other parts of the world. Therefore, with more than 1 billion travelers/year worldwide, global disease outbreaks, such as H1N1 and bird flu, have become increasingly likely. Moving handrail belts, widely used in airports, shopping stores, train stations, and other public facilities, can act as a transfer medium for germs. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has identified these belts as capable of transferring infections and diseases from one individual to another.
In addition to the associated health risk of not cleaning these belts, some people refrain from using the handrails due to hygiene concerns. These individuals can be subjected to slipping or falling. This is especially worrisome for children, elderly people, and people with disabilities. Moreover, dirty handrail belts harm the image of the facility where the escalator is.
In order to address public health issues, some control measures have been taken in relation with the use of escalators. For example, during the outbreak of SARS and the H1N1 flu, health personnel were back-assigned specifically to disinfect the escalators independently to prevent public infections in some Asian countries. Somewhat surprisingly, this task of manually cleaning escalators has not yet seen widespread replacement by machines.